Located on Main Street, a short walk from the Vineyard Haven Commercial district, Owen Park slopes from Main Street down to the Vineyard Haven Harbor providing a spectacular view of the harbor. Owen Park offers a broad range of activities including boating, swimming, paddle board access, picnicking, swings, comfortable seating, and model boat sailing. This is the location of the Town Harbormaster’s office, the Town Pier with access to the harbor mooring field, and an event pavilion. The Beach is ADA accessible, there is a swimming float, a public restroom, and an open air beach shower for post swimming rinse off. The seating area at the top of the slope is a great place to take in the harbor activity over a cup of coffee or a midday lunch. The lower beach area is ideal for family picnics. There is free parking which can fill up but there is a drop off near the beach and generally there is available parking along Main Street.

Owen Park is one of the Town’s most active parks and is treasured by residents for its view and access to the harbor and its long tradition of public gatherings including concerts, the annual Tisbury School March to the Sea and most recently the First Friday celebrations from May – October each year.

History

Owen Park was named after William Barry Owen, a successful entrepreneur born in a home on Main Street in 1860. William grew up in Vineyard Haven, and became an excellent salesman and entrepreneur. Owen was responsible for promoting the gramophone in Europe, and was co-founder of the UK Gramophone Company.

In 1899, Owen oversaw the purchase of Francis Barraud’s painting, “His Master’s Voice,” by the Gramophone Company. As part of the purchase, Barraud replaced the original cylinder machine in the painting with a disc gramophone at the company's request. The image in this painting, featuring a Jack Russell Terrier named Nipper listening intently to a horn gramophone, was widely used by the Victor Talking Machine Company and RCA Victor in the United States, and by HMV in the United Kingdom.

When he returned from Europe in the early 1900’s Owen used his wealth to purchase three houses on the site of what is now Owen Park. He relocated these houses to open a view of the harbor and make way for a proposed William Street Manor, which never materialized. Five years after William’s death in 1919, his widow gifted the property to the Town of Tisbury, to be known as Owen Park, for the purpose of a public park and recreation center, with the agreement that the town pay off the remainder of the mortgage.

A variety of memorials, donations and structures were installed at the park over time. The flagpole, a mast from a schooner that ran aground on south beach was installed in 1929. The plaque on the flagpole recognizes and honors the war veterans. A bronze drinking fountain in 1935 and a bandstand were constructed. Due to costly maintenance after the stormy hurricane season of 1954, the Playground and Recreation Committee started an initiative to build a new bandstand. A thoughtful design and plan were crafted, and yet when it came time to build there was not enough money to accomplish the goal. The following year, the current bandstand was hurriedly built before the summer season in 1962. A weathervane by Travis Tuck was installed in the early 80s.

The Harbormaster’s building, a small shed in the early 90’s, was replaced by the current building in the late 90s. The bathrooms were added in 2005, showers in 2011 and a dormer was added in 2014.

Click to read Owen Park - Vision Planning 2015 and Owen Park History and Project Background